MILAN (ITALPRESS) – The CME-accredited conference “Gender Medicine: the perspective of the Health Professions” was held on Saturday, March 8, 2025, at the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. The event, organized by the Order of Medical Radiology Health Technicians and Technical, Rehabilitation and Prevention Health Professions (TSRM and PSTRP) of Milan, Como, Lecco, Lodi, Monza Brianza and Sondrio under the patronage of the Municipality of Milan and Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, featured numerous experts, academics and representatives of national and regional Foundations.
“Gender medicine is an increasingly pressing and topical issue,” said Order President Diego Catania. “Thanks to the different perspectives and authoritative voices of professors and national and regional referents for gender medicine,” he added, “we want to hypothesize strategic actions to make our National Health Service increasingly inclusive, trying to give a possible answer to the question: what is the role of the Health Professions in this evolution?
Institutional greetings opened with a speech by Milan City Councilor for Welfare, Lamberto Bertolè, who spoke about the importance of putting human resources back at the center of the health system in order to create an inclusive care setting. Also present were Piero Ferrante, President of the National Federation of Physiotherapist Orders; Barbara Maria Cantoni, Secretary of the Order of Nursing Professions of Milan, Lodi, Monza and Brianza; Rudy Alexander Rossetto, President of the Order of Biologists of Lombardy; Nadia Rovelli, President of the Interprovincial Order of the Midwifery Profession of Bergamo, Cremona, Como, Lecco, Lodi, Milan, Monza Brianza, and Sondrio; and Paolo Giovanni Viola, President of the Order of Chemists and Physicists of Lombardy, testifying to a synergy among the referents of the Professions at the regional and national levels on the issue of equitable access to care.
The conference kicked off with a talk by Dr. Francesca Maranghi, First Researcher of the Reference Center for Gender Medicine at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, who introduced the topic of gender medicine, its application in the National Health Service, and the role of ISS in carrying out experimental studies focusing on gender differences in order to identify vulnerable population groups. Afterwards, Dr. Franca Di Nuovo, Region of Lombardy’s Gender Medicine Referent and Component of the National Observatory of Gender Medicine, presented an overview of the Lombardy Region’s actions for equitable access to care, and Dr. Cinthia Farina, Gender Medicine Referent of IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele and of the Region of Lombardy’s Technical Insight Group on Gender Medicine, elaborated on the strategies implemented by a large healthcare company to implement a caring and inclusive approach.
Dr. Moreno Zanardo, Chief Scientific Officer, and Professor Giuseppe Banfi, Full Professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Clinical Molecular Biology at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele and Scientific Director of IRCCS Ospedale Galeazzi-Sant’Ambrogio, moderated the speeches.
In the second part of the morning, coordinated by Dr. Ambra Cerri, Operational Director of Research at IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, and Dr. Fabio Corbino, Contact Person for the Order’s Gender Equity Working Group, the speakers focused on the importance of gender variables in prevention and large-scale data collection.
Professor Serenella Castelvecchio, Head of the Echocardiography Laboratory and Follow-up Cardiac-Surgical-Heart-Adult Area at IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, spoke about cardiovascular risk assessment in women, while Professor Rossella Tomaiuolo, Associate Professor in Clinical Biochemistry at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, focused on how to collect and interpret data from a gender-sensitive perspective. The talk by Professor Cinzia Bressi, Associate Professor in Psychiatry at University of Milan, on the other hand, focused on the Gender Role Questionnaire (GeRoQ), developed by the University in collaboration with the Gender Equity Working Group of the TSRM and PSTRP Order of Milan.
The ‘GeRoQ’ Questionnaire, the result of valuable synergy with the Order, aims to identify the elements that contribute to differences in access to care,” says Prof. Bressi. “We have also tried to emphasize more ‘submerged’ aspects of the phenomenon, such as the impact of internalized gender roles in requiring or seeking certain care, or the disparity in the distribution of domestic responsibilities between men and women, which may result in less time available to perform medical checkups. We need to be aware of all the variables at work to implement effective corrective actions.”
Lastly, Researcher Dr. Elisa Sala spoke about gender medicine from the perspective of “The Bridge” Foundation Study Center, a privileged observatory that networks institutions, academia, patient and caregiver associations and scientific societies to reflect on the state of the art of the health system.
“The future of health care is built by training knowledgeable Professionals,” comments Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of the Order, Moreno Zanardo. “The need to adopt a different approach to care, more inclusive and equitable, requires the acquisition of new knowledge realized in interdisciplinary courses, thanks to continuous updating and comparison with experts in the field. In this way it is possible to transfer the findings of research and scientific literature into the daily work of Health Professionals.”
Adds the Order’s Gender Equity Working Group Liaison, Fabio Corbino: “Deconstructing social and cultural biases and promoting a gender-aware perspective can make a difference in several areas: in the relationship with the person being cared for, in identifying symptoms, and in correctly identifying the most appropriate course of care for each and every one.”
“For years, the Order has paid special attention to the educational offerings aimed at members,” President Catania concludes. “Our goal is to identify the directions of progress in the health care system and the cross-cutting aspects that affect the growth of the Professions. All those who attended the conference will come out with a different awareness regarding the inclusiveness of care and gender differences, which they will apply and operationalize in the exercise of their competencies. This is how the Health Professions become protagonists of change, triggering a necessary evolutionary push from within the health system.”
– Photo press office Order of Medical Radiology Health Technicians and Technical, Rehabilitation and Prevention Health Professions (TSRM and PSTRP) of Milan, Como, Lecco, Lodi, Monza Brianza and Sondrio –
(ITALPRESS).
